Saturday was here.I had been waiting for a while for this day to come.Make that four whole months I had been looking forward to it.I could hear noise coming from the village square.Joyful noise.Ululation.
‘Amu please wake up,” my sister shouted.I scrambled out of my blankets and went outside.It was such a beautiful day.The sun was out in all its glory and today the Chitanga village in Mwenezi was gathering to celebrate a girl child,me.
Growing up we had known such celebrations to be held only when the girls went for their rites of passage,circumcision.All my elder sisters had gone through it and soon after had gotten married.It was normal.Going to school was for the male child,they said.Girls were only good for child bearing,they said.What the men said was law and ours was to bow our heads in submission.
In all this adherence to culture one had been lost.My sister Hlayisani.She had died as a result of heavy bleeding.They couldn’t stop it and going to the clinic was not an option.No one in my family dared to talk about it but I swore that I would succeed on her behalf.Here I was,Amukhelani Chauke daughter of the mighty Chauke being celebrated for graduating cum laude at the University of Zimbabwe.
I had not gone through the rite of passage.I had not married young.I had gone school.I had conquered and I was the reason for the gathering of the Shangaan people that day.I wished my sister had lived to see this day where girls were now free of all the cultural fetters that had taken the destiny of many.
As I stood to give my speech on the makeshift stage that day,I made an announced that made my mom smile.I had not told her but The Hlayisani Foundation for Shangaan girls was to be launched the next week and all girls in my village were to receive free education from then.This was freedom for us.
As I stood there I could see some faces of stout patriarchs frowning in distaste but I no longer cared.Times had changed and we were the free generation.